Yeah… that’s me… a happy Gooner rolling in transfers. What a bloody day eh?! The best day since time began? Or maybe just the best summer in 5 years? Either way, all the right things began to happen yesterday!

Now, there was obviously disappointment yesterday morning when everyone thought I was telling lies about Yann M’Vila, but then later that day, the backpage of the Evening Standard ran the story pretty much word for word and The Times are reporting the same this morning. Now, they’ve either got someone telling them the same things, or they’ve got a penchant for a daily dose of Le Grove. Either outcome is pleasing. Like I said yesterday, watch this space. We could easily spend £60million today and not bat an eye lid.

Simple fact is, Alex Song not the one and he’ll be off next summer. Frimpong is a very good prospect, but he needs guidance. Whichever way you look at it, we need a defensive midfielder today. We’re desperately short in the middle.

Defence…

We landed Per Mertesacker yesterday after he completed a medical. Andre Santos was also doing the same. There were a few articles floating about online that stated he’d changed his mind and flown back to Turkey to sign a 4 year deal. I’d be very surprised if that were the case!

Per Mertesacker was a massive curve ball yesterday, but ultimately a fantastic one. He’s a player we’ve been calling for on Le Grove since before June 2008. We reported that he was a Gooner way back then here, 3 years on, whaddya know, he’s going to be turning out at the home of football!

He’s 6ft6, he’s built powerfully, he has 70+ caps for a very solid German team, he’s won trophies, he has Champions League experience and he knows how to defend. Rumour has it we’ve picked him up for £9million. What a price!

This is the sort of player we should always be in for. He has pedigree, he has presence and he’ll slot in perfectly next to Thomas Vermaelen. We have a genuine little and large combination. We have a defender who has played the highline for club and country and we’ve done something crazy… signed a tall player to deal with our fear of high flying balls!

Sacrebleu! <- Does that mean what I think it does?

I’m very pleased.

Park Chu-Young signed for us officially yesterday. The South Korean captain joins us under a cloud of ‘who the f**k’, but the key point here is versatility and hard word. Mainly hard work though. Arshavin and Rosicky showed at the weekend that they’re not cut out for Arsenal when crunch time comes. We need someone who is going to work for their salary, this guy will. Does he have the required quality? I’m not sure… but if he can bag 12 goals for a relegated Monaco, I’d hope for something similar or better for a team capable of teeing him up with far more chances.

Oh, and he takes the number 9 shirt. You knew that already though, right?

Clint Dempsey…

There are big rumours we’re looking to add the American to our attacking line up. Whilst he’s not world-class, he’s a very good player with a superb eye for goal. He has that aggravation factor and a terrific work rate. You don’t need all your players to be La Masia schooled. Sometimes you just need a player who is direct, in your face and not afraid to ruffle a few feathers. He scored 14 goals for Fulham last year and he was very impressive. I’d welcome him into our squad and word on the South American street is that we’ve tabled a $16.8million bid for him.

Gary Cahill…

Have Bolton burned their bridges in negotiations for a player they’ll lose on a free if they don’t get rid of him today? We’ve signed a centre back already. That puts the pressure on Gartside’s hugely indebted club to do a deal today. I think we’re still in for him. Johann Djourrou has been so bad over the past 6 months, you wonder for his future. Cahill is still a top defender and regardless of how many people tell you he’s rubbish, he’s not, he’d make a great addition to the squad.

I still remember how many people told me Ashley Young wasn’t Arsenal quality… some statement eh?

Chris Samba…

There were a lot of rumblings about the shower bully from Blackburn. I have my doubts. The rumours feel more like stories designed to get him a move away from Steve Kean. He’d be a useful addition, but we’ve already filled the role of ‘massive beast’, if we get another centre back, they’ll be good on the ground and stylish… Like a break dancer.

The creative hole?

There’s a massive hole in our side, that’s the one left by Cesc Fabregas. If there’s going to be a monster signing today, I’d love it to come there. Yossi looks like he’s off to Spurs, so good luck to him, quality player, poor injury record. That leaves us with the prospect of Gotze or Hazard. There will probably be another curve ball thrown there, but I’m struggling to see where it’s coming from. The German might be pulled away from his club for £35million and a massive salary, I’m not sure though, it would be a bad move for Dortmund but I guess it depends on how much they want the cash. They’re not flush!

My money is on Arteta. Like Yossi, top quality, just not so much on the fitness side of things. I’d also be interested in Frank Ribery. He was once a £60million player, then his mates bought him a 17 year old hooker, now he’s not quite as popular. He’d be amazing in the Premiership. He’d replace Nasri perfectly. Could we move for him? I’d love it… who knows! Sky are reporting that Honda is in London for a medical… it’s all too much!

Medical…

I was told that two medicals were booked yesterday, two more for today. Make of that what you will!

Conclusion

It’s a shame it took an absolute spanking to push the board and Arsene Wenger into some serious action. Nearly all of this business could have been conducted in June. I don’t believe all these players have been targets all summer, we’ve just shown intent and made things happen because careers are on the line.

Still, that’s a story for another day.

We’re developing a strong core to the team now. We could make top 4 if we make 2-3 signings of intent again today. Amazing how quickly things can change eh? The squad will be revitalised and fans will be excited for the Swansea game. A morale booster for everyone!

My worry though, is that we’re once again in a transition year. This sort of frenzied 48 hours should never have happened and if we’d made purchases like this 2 years ago, who knows who’d still be here fighting it out in the first team.

Anyway, it’s the last day of transfer rumours. There won’t be a live blog, the comments section will going mental all day, tune in, you can get far more info than 140 characters into a comment and all the stories will come direct to you all day from the Grovers! Life is very exciting!

P.S. For some further reading and listening, check out Tim Payton in the Independent talking business models(I’m not talking topless Staples Girls) and the Footy Shows Podcast starring king of AKB’s, Bob Wilson!

A tough 2 days and a lot of experienced internatiomals signed to help our young players.Could have been better but not too bad. As for Tampon and his comments, I have been following for a while and I was wondering a. is he a child? b. is he paid by the moderators to cause dissent or 3. he is an imbecille…. in my opinion a little from b and a lot from column c. Oh and BTW you should get out more you sad looser. Pathetic!!

just frustrated mainly that these deals weren’t finalised 3 weeks ago, esp as none of them really are of a quality that would hold us over a ECL qualification barrel. Thus unnecessarily putting us 8 points behind at this stage of the season.

Additionally frustrated that we haven’t really replaced Cesc with an established forward that immediately instil’s fear in opponents.

Marko – in fairness, if you believe the rumours we offered plenty over £20 million for M’Vila. So wasn’t for lack of trying. In the end, you can’t buy a player who isn’t for sale, and it sounds like Hazard simply wasn’t for sale.

Good day of business.
10 new players, and even made a 20m profit!!!!
Finacial fair play comes in,in a few seasons, so I think the club are trying to pay off as much of the stadium debt as they can before this happens.
If we can still finish top 4 this year and next, without going overboard on big money signings, we will be the best placed club in Europe and in a good position to do to City,Chelsea,Barca and Utd what alot of them have been doing to us when it is brought in.

Dont get me wrong, Ive forked out 1330 quid which i cant really afford on my season ticket again this year, but im confident in the direction we are going.

Its just that we have had to take some bad days at the office on the chin in recent times, but come on, at least we have got an amazing history to call on when taking this abuse,much of it thanks to Arsene.

I know its another 2 years,and we want sucess now, but we are building,these next two years our young players (jack,frimpong etc) will grow and I still think it will be an enjoyable ride, which again will continue the strong reputation of our brand of football and global fanbase.
Also the asian signings and another couple of Asian tours will certainly help.
We are going in the right direction, and we will look back in a few years time, and thank our lucky stars that the greatest visionary of the modern football era who forsaw what and where football was going, when others just called for him to be sacked,chose to fall in love with our club,and show such loyalty to our club.The guys a genius. Come on you Gunners.

I hear ya Albo and lets not forget we apparently had a massive bid for Gotze turned down so at least we did try some super signings but again I can’t help but think that if we tried to sign some of these guys earlier that we might of succeeded.

Yeah we all thought after qualifying for the CL we would have elusive top quality midfielder, I don’t think anyone can spin it that we are still short of quality in that area and upfront.
Some people are annoyed because we have the funds to strengthen those areas better.

Moray – I totally agree, and I’m not saying this window hasn’t been appallingly managed, BUT, if we had signed these exact names at the start of the window I really don’t think we’d see many of them as panic buys. For me its a mixture of quality (Mertesacker, Arteta, Santos, Gervinho), hard working pros (Benayoun, Park) and up coming talent (Oxlade -C, Campbell).

Ok, some will moan there is no out and out fantasy signing, a la Hazard, but I think as a SQUAD we are probably stronger than we were, simply because of the improvement at the back…

In the cold light of day, now the dust has settled, we haven’t done too badly. Sure, it wasn’t the dream day I was hoping for but at least now we have some experienced international players to help ease the burden and bring through our youth. How we gel will be pivotal – I still think we are completely mismanaged, but we have the semblence of a proper squad.

Nice to see a sense of balance restored at LG. It’s now fairly evenly divided between optimists and pessimists. Put me in the optimist camp due to the last-minute Arteta deal. That tipped the scales for me.

Fair enough for people to point out we didn’t land a big fish (M’Vila, Goetze etc) but we have a squad built to land us back in the Top 4. No point in competing with the Top 3 when they can double up any salary we offer a player. Mata was the real blow for Arsene, but we’ve recovered decently.

I think we’ve done just enough to move us ahead of LIverpool and Spurs for the 4th spot, but it will be close, and if Song and Frimpong go to Africa in January, we might move for M’Vila or another DM then. The money is definitely there.

As for the lateness of the activity, it’s clear that we didn’t get the players we wanted. I’m pretty sure the ideal would have been Gervinho, Mata, Jagielka and M’Vila. It just didn’t work out for various reasons but at least we had a back-up plan and money to spend in January.

By the way, Levy is an idiot if he walked away from 30-40 million for a deeply, deeply unsettled player in Modric. This could wreck the season for them.

Meireles only wanted Chelsea I think decent signing for them that’s why they let Yossi go. Part of the point of reducing the wage bill you’d think it help us secure bigger signings but we’ve still got January if needed to strengthen..

And actually, I’m not THAT fussed about missing out on M’Vila. That’s one area I actually think our youth guys can step up. For me Song, Frimpong and Coquelin are a FAR stronger set of options for DM than we had last season…

On another note, I will be SO interested to see how Bendtner does playing for a team that plays more directly. I’ve always felt he could be deadly for a team like Stoke or Sunderland. Great with his head, and better with his feet than many of his size. If we had someone who could cross and a manager bullying him to get in the box at every opportunity he would have scored a shit load IMO…

incesc – the funny thing is, if the rumours about M’Villa were that we had had a £10 million bid turned down, no one on here would give a shit. Because we heard we bid £22 million, or maybe more, suddenly he becomes the great saviour of AFC in people’s heads. Most people on here probably hadn’t really heard of him, let alone seen him play, before they read about our interest!

Pretty much 4th is realistic as you say Bacary we’ve just got to deal with it, I’m more of a realist. Missing out on players like Mata earlier in the summer was a kick in the teeth because of how badly planned this summer has been.
I see nothing wrong with expecting better as fans of this club we are want the best, I just don’t know how we’ve let it get to this.

Keyser – oh jeez, its incredibly easy to put a doomer slant on it all. I still think there has been a catalogue of shocking mismanagement and errors etc. BUT the last 2 days has at least rectified some of those…

Albo, we have added experience and height at the back. Experience in the midfield, and pace on the flanks. I am still worried about our lb position, and I really see that as a panic buy. I just feel we were in for more, and we could have pushed for a marquee signing had we started earlier. That would have the club dancing.

Still, it is better than we normally do, and the clear out is the best news this summer. It frees up some wages to offer vp10 and perhaps Theo new contracts.

This year, diaby, Theo, arsha and djourou are playing for their arsenal lives. We may sign Cahill at Xmas or for free next year. And we will have the finances and perhaps a new manager next summer to bolster the club still further. Overall, not bad, but threadbare in places (left back and striker particularly)

That I certainly agree with – and frankly is probably the reason I’ve been seen as an AKB on here over the years. I’ve always seen us as a club clinging on to a status that our bank balance and overall history doesn’t quite support. And particularly since Chelsea and then Man City came along we were never going to find it easy to continue to cling to that status.

That said, I’m really not that unhappy with the make up of our squad right now, particularly if Wilshere gets fit soon…

Lurch LeRouge – I’d say that’s pretty naive, we’ve invested 16million and 3 years into making Nasri the player he is now, what he respresented was more that his market value really, Players carry almost all power, if he says I’ll decide at the end of the year what do you do ?!

Even if we spent 23 million on replacing him with Mata, we’d never get him to accept the wages he was on or offered.

Fabregas’s situation highlights it better, he forced his move, at least up until the point where we got a decent if not market value fee, we were stuck, either let him go for say half his worth knowing you’re not going to be able to replace him for that money anyway or squueze everything you can.

I detest Fabregas for that, the last 3 years he’s spent every summer at an Internation tournament and he’s suffered every year with injuries for us probably because of it, this year he gets the summer off, refuses to play and he’s probably going back to Barca in better shape than he’s ever been.

Ok but that acceptance is twofold, the other dimension is his acceptance that 20 players in the squad were never going to cut mustard and that’s a side effect of him fighting against the hierarchical spending over the past few years. He’s had to replace those numbers to a certain extent so the purchase’s aren’t just a response to consumer pressure.

Its tough to have this conversation without seeing what each individual brings to our game really.

Lurch LeRouge – Think that’s another problem of the spending, no Individual at most of the top clubs is asked to be stretched to breaking point nowadays, it hit me watching Aguero playing for Citeh, knowing Tevez was on waiting to come on from the bench.

Watch Barcelona play against Villereal and while barcelona have a great team, they’ve simply sucked the La Liga talent pool dry and vomited it back into their own squad.

Incesc – I honestly don’t think he’s done that on purpose, in an attempt to fleece fans and line whoevers pockets, 10-15years ago he could spend 10 million and find Vieira for 3.5, Petit for whatever, Anelka, Overmars and probably have change.

It’s like having £20 quid in your back pocket, knowing you don’t like anything in the shop windows or can’t find something you like, but you have to do something with it.

Lurch LeRouge – I understood, it’s just balanced against how badly they want to leave, the power is weighted towards the player as it is and towards our rivals spending power, it’s never completely in your control to begin with.

Keyser says:
September 1, 2011 at 02:12
The slant is that Wenger’s finally given up on bridging the gap to the top 2-3, trying to find players that may progress to being World Class, and instead he’s just bought for the sake of buying.

The only hope for us now is that the few kids with potential we’ve got left improve beyond belief.

***********

Funny that. Cuz this is the way Wenger should have been doing it. I think we are in a better position now to attain/retain that ‘big boy in Europe’ status than we we’ve been in some time.

We still have a HUGE chunk of money left and there still players about that should not be at Arsenal.

A DM, Striker and we are good to go. Expecting some teens to grow into classy players was completely the wrong way to go.

Zeus – It’s not funny really, people can go on about the Youth policy all they want, he’s done that from day 1, from the first moment he joined the club, he bought players who were young, or had iffy injury histories and so on and got more value out of them than what we paid.

We have a Huge Chunk in comparison to the teams below where we finished last year, we have a small amount compared to the teams who finished above us.

Keyser, if youre still awake, our spend is skewed towards wages. We used to have the biggest wage bill in the PL in 2008, dont know if that has changed much. Transfer fees are like Plant and Machinery – they are capital expenses which get amortized over the period of the contract. We are underinvested in capital expenses and way too high on operating expenses.

Wonder how the finance guys treat transfer fees on the balance sheet. I guess they dont distinguish between the two and we move money between the transfer fees bucket and the wage bucket seamlessly. So we have an inflated wage bill and not enough money to compete on transfers.

With the reduction in the number of squad members this season, I hope that the beancounters will do a better job of finding money for transfers in the January window.

Of course, with luck, we will be #2 going into Christmas and Le Boss will not buy anyone.

Roberto I describe myself as feeling relieved, we would have struggled with the squad that got trashed by United but as big club we should be showing more ambition as you say.
A bit more star quality in those areas and we’d be much more competitive up against City, Chelsea and United.

To follow on from before, I think we have taken huge strides with our squad.

Ideally we would get another international level CB so TV can have a go playing CDM. Think his positioning, mobility, good long distance shot, and reasonable passing would have him fit well into that role.

3 more world class players would cost us 50-60 million, which by my conservative estimate, we would still have sitting away.

Not only have our sales this year added to our alleged 20 mill kitty, we have 30-40 mill left over from the sales of Ade, Kolo etc.

Hazard at the end of the year, Higuian or another decent pure forward, and that extra defender/ defensive mid would have us pushing top 3 again.

Still think we can finish above Liverpool and Tottenham, meaning we have a chance at 4th.

Not the idea summer, but in the past 2 days, Arsenal have done well to partially rectify the situation.
Kudos to the team. Buying 5 players in 2 days isn’t trivial. In the circumstances, we did well. A marquee signing has to wait.

50-60 on World class? Is that in British Pounds?
Players like Mata cost £23m who aren’t quite super quality but have all are definite top quality or star quality, unfortunately the later we waited the less clubs want to sell unless it’s for way above their usual asking price.

I love that fact that Arteta took a pay cut of ten grand to join us, he’s a seasoned pro that Jack is going to benefit being around. As I said before, a much better blend of youth and experience now, plus a great looking back 5 on paper. More positive than negative now, and that can’t be a bad thing can it?

Roberto, three players is a quarter of our squad! Wenger always somehow manages to leave us feeling a bit threadbare. I like these signings though. Let’s just pray we can avoid too many injuries this time around.

now that the dust settled, and we know who’s in and who’s out, let me sums it up

we made traffic in numbers as we all wanted, but not in quality surely

there are debates did we strengthen or not. but this is not the real question.

no doubt we had to strengthen even if we were not losing cesc and nasri. we needed, with them staying, another 2 CBs, LB, DM, CM, CF, all of the top quality.

so nasri and cesc left. we brought arteta and benayoun, who are very good subs, not players that match cesc or nasri quality wise.

we didn’t bring the needed DM. that will cost us count on me you all.

we did bring reasonable LB (hope so), and good CB. but only 1 (i have to say i though JD can be our 4th CB, but his form of the last 6 months is worrying, dropping and i don’t see the come-back from this on the horizon).

no CM, no CB. sorry, but park isn’t the equal match of robin we all were anticipating to see.

so basically the team is thinner and weaker.

but before you jump, even if we say it’s the same quality, let me remind you that team went 4th with dropping form for the last third of season. it was a relegation form and we should’ve been adding massively…..

we didn’t, so expect the trophy drought to be extended in one year.

ah, and expect robin, arshavin and theo (at least) to leave….

if any one’s looking for a positive notes, i have 2

1) look at the deadwood cleared, nice albeit not sufficient. we still have almunia, squillaci, rosicky, diaby and chamakh. i know rosicky had a decent game this season. but sorry, a decent game in two seasons doesn’t make me happy.

2) if i remember correctly, the last we had such a traffic activity of ins and outs, we ended winning the double. though, the quality was on another sphere, and that was before arsene got mentally ill….

i havent seen arteta’s play in open play on youtube… it might mean actually he is more of a xabi-alonso type of a player, benayoun is more of a finisher than playmaker. In short its still Jack.

But I am happy it seems we have done well to shore up the defense. Cant really judge Mert without seeing him in play though. Santos will come good imo. Park should help RVP out upfront quite well and its now time we switched to 4-4-2

Think they are all relatively realistic signings, although I understand the reluctance to spend 17 milll on a player for 1-3 seasons max. Saying that though, it isnt much different to buying Arshavin at his age, and he hasn’t hallf the class of Kaka..

How about examine our squad, now that our transfer dealings are over
Positives:
1. All the departures, INCLUDING Cesc
2. The arrivals, Yes some are unknown quantities
Negatives
1. The time it took to do the deals
2. TOTAL mismanagement of the window
THE SQUAD
DEFENCE: Vermaelen, Koscielny Djourou , Mertesacker, Miguel, Squillaci Sagna, Gibbs,Santos, , Jenkinson
**I FEEL BETTER ABOUT THIS DEFENCE
MIDFILED: Wilshere, Ramsey, Rosicky Song, Diaby Arteta, Benayoun, Gervinho, Walcott, Arshavin, Miyaichi, Oxlade Frimpong,Coquelin
** REASONABLY OKAY( I AM GLAD WE SIGNED THEM BOTH, NOT MY FIRSH CHOICE THO)
FORWARD: VAN P, Chamakh, Afobe Park
** THIS AREA WORRIES ME, CUZ IT IS FILLED WITH UNKNOWNS AND UTTER RUBBISH

CONCLUSION: WE COULD HAVE DONE BETTER, CONSIDERING THE REPORTED TALENT AVAILABLE IN THE MARKET, BUT I AM REASONABLY SATISFIED ABOUT THE SQUAD WE HAVE, PROVIDED THEY STAY FIT!!!

IMHO, we’re still short of a proper striker, a quality CDM and one more CB.

This may sound a lot even wishful thinking, but AW & Co. have neglected the first team for so long, it would take what we’ve currently got AND those three additional players to bring us back up to strength.

However, numbers do not equate quality.

This transfer window was a fucking abortion, even with what we finally signed. It was handled extremely poorly yet again. How i see it is, we’ve bought just enough to get us through the next season.

I think it’s safe to say that just about everyone know’s this summer could’ve gone better but we’ve replaced large parts of the team and are already 3 games deep into the season with a transfer window closed, do you REALLY think the best thing for the team now is to keep looking for ppl to hang or is it maybe, just maybe an idea to get the new players to feel welcome with fantastic support?

LIke the methods or not but as supporters we are stuck in this boat so I’d like to say, change teams or get in line!

i must say we had a better AM last season in cesc that’s for sure, but the thing is he was injured most of time and didn’t play well in the big games.

arteta will surely be up to it in the PL, he may not be as brilliant as cesc but at least he’ll work hard to stay in the team and prove himself, this could be his last move to an elite club.

Don’t forget we’ve got wilshere and ramsey who are both creative players and will potentially turn into the best CM pairing in Britain within 2 years. Arteta is perfect to guide them, take a bit of pressure off their shoulders. there’s benayoun too who’s an improvement on rosicky, arshavin maybe better than him but he’s rubbish atm, hope he sort it out quickly because he’s one of the most gifted players in the squad and he’s brilliant on his day

So Wenger spends 7 years building project youth, loses his poster boys in August after he should have signed Young and Cahill in June, loses 8-2 to the Mancs, worst defeat in over 100 years and we all know he likes stats.

Then he buys an underwhelming bunch for a tiny amount and two of them are crocks and old.

Talk about doing the opposite to the last 7 years, then if it fails he’ll blame us.

What happened to Hazard, Cahill and Mata Wenger? that’s who we should have gone after.

mertezaker is pretty good. And who knows, gervinho might turn out to be a world class addition (i know you don’t believe me, only time will tell) not to mention wilshere, vermaelen, chezzer, sagna all world class or on the verge of becoming world class imo. forget bout the 8 goals chesney conceded. he had donkeys in front of him that day

We can’t pay £30m+ on a player and 150k-200k/W in wages to a couple of players when we have so many areas in the squad that needed improvement. We have to face the fact that even if we’ve got £50m sitting in the bank we still can’t compete with shitty or chavski for a high profile player they want. they have unlimited resources.

we’ll have a good season imo, better than the last one, the experience is there. To be honest i am tired of the kids.

Arteta as a squad player would be top class (Instead of Rosicky), as the central playmaker its embarassing.

Also, does anyone really think Wenger wants Arteta?

He knew Cesc was going 2 months ago, and got £34m for him, and then waits until 10.59pm on the last day to sign him?!

Pretty much every player we signed was a panic buy, or a useless kid. The only genuine signing we’ve made is Gervinho.

– A dirt cheap average korean striker
– A cheap left back due to Fener needing money
– Our 3rd/4th/5th choice for CB cos he was cheaper than Jagielka or Cahill
– Our 15th choice playmaker cos wenger spent 3 months on a fucking yacht in the med rather than making signings
– A crock average midfielder that our rivals had absolutely no worries about lending us

it is a nice “hammy half fabregas is better ” to read but not practical…he was nowhere when we need him….atleast we have someone decent enough to play when fabregas wasnt there….in last season becos of his mental problems…

Hi everyone,
Virgin comment from me.
Really enjoy your posts.
I am no AKB but surely he cant have lost the plot so badly that we now have a team incapable of winning the title.
This must be driven from the Board/owners who clearly don’t want to, or aren’t capable of the necessary investment in the squad.
Whilst the squad is better than 24 hours ago, it is a long way short of what’s required to challenge the now clear top 3.
There is not one purchase made over summer that would make their squads, and if your competition is getting stronger, than you must as well, or you go backwards.
The idea of fighting for fourth as the best we can do, is not on. Obviously the move to Emirates has sucked plenty of cash out of the kitty, which means you need to be smarter in your recruiting. If the last few days has taught us anything, it is that our management and recruitment are not a patch on Manure. Last minute scrounging for quality players means compromise on the players.
Even the improved squad will have no chance unless their are tactical changes. If Wenger doesn’t fix the fundamental defensive flaws, then 4th will be a pipedream.
Half of me wants him gone, but that means we would have failed this year, the other half is praying for great results and a trophy or 2. And I’m not religious !

Its all good and well saying buy Mata,Benzema,Hazard atc but why would they come to Arsenal?

Mata turned us down for Chelski, Benzema is determined to prove himself at Ral and good luck to him, Hazard is literally not for sale, nor is Hamseik,Gotez, Erikson etc.

Anyways all these boys are in the Champions Lge and should they do well they will have the pick of clubs next season offering premium wages.
Also dont forget the Euros are on this summer and many players wont move before such a tournament.

What we got are players with desire to succed, experienced players, talented players who will give their all and be massive additions to a depelted squad.

Just need to grasp reality lads, one minute your saying we are borderline for relegation, next we should have Benzema on our books, doesnt add up..